White House, GOP Leaders Appear Close to Budget Deal
by Lisa Mascaro
The White House and congressional Republican leaders are close to reaching a bipartisan two-year budget agreement, rolling back some of the impending sequester cuts that would affect defense and domestic programs, sources said Monday.
A deal, which might be announced as soon as Monday, could resolve the stalemate over reauthorizing government funding, which runs out Dec. 11. It would also shift the threat of another government shutdown until after the 2016 presidential election.
Progress toward a budget accord came as a surprise to many. It would be one of the final legislative actions of House Speaker John. A Boehner, who is preparing to step down later this week after being forced by GOP conservatives to retire early.
“We’re hopeful to have something to announce tonight,” said a senior congressional leadership aide, granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
After announcing his retirement, Boehner had vowed to “clean up the barn” for his successor. Resolving the budget standoff would clear one of the most divisive issues from the agenda of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who is expected to be elected as the next House speaker later this week.
The more Boehner can muscle through the testy GOP-led House in the days ahead, the smoother the transition will be for Ryan.
Included in the package would be an agreement to raise the debt ceiling until March 2017, sources said.
White House officials declined to comment.
Aides to both congressional leaders and the White House have been meeting behind closed doors for weeks on a possible budget deal. The aim has been to rollback some of the steep sequester cuts that both parties have wanted to undo. Republicans have wanted to halt cuts to the Pentagon, while Democrats have sought to ease the reductions to domestic programs.
Talks had dragged, though, as the two sides tried to figure out how to pay for the increased spending.
Under the contours of the current talks, the deal would likely be paid for with a combination of budget cuts elsewhere, new fees and by relying partly on an overseas contingency fund that had been set aside for military operations.
This final act for Boehner could result in a politically heroic effort to resolve looming crises despite deep resistance from the GOP majority in the House. Or it could cement his standing among hard-right Republicans that his willingness to compromise with President Obama made him insufficiently conservative.
“Listen, this is not about us,” Boehner said last week. “Our job is to do the right thing for the American people every day. You have heard me say this multiple times, and I will say it one more time: If you do the right things for the right reasons every day, the right things will happen for our country.”
Also Monday, the House is expected to advance legislation to salvage the Export-Import Bank — a Depression-era financing entity that big business say is vital for exports, but conservatives deride as crony capitalism.
Conservatives already scored a major victory to begin shuttering the bank earlier this year by failing to authorize new lending. A brutal lobbying campaign over the bank has been underway on both sides of the issue.
But a bipartisan majority in the House wants to revives the bank –pushing the vote forward with a rare “discharge petition” procedure that hasn’t been fully deployed since the 1970s.
Boehner is not expected to stand in their way.
